"TOO SLOW."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 180, 8 January 1915, Page 5

"TOO SLOW."

PROGRESS OF THE CAMPAIGN. ; •WHAT OUR RUSSIAN ALLIES THINK OF US. (By H. Hamilton Fyfe in the Dailylii»il.)i I'ctrograd, November 10. ' While I was in France, during the first 1 'ten weeks of the war, I used often to hear the question petulantly askeds| :_"Why ar.; the Russians not making more rapid progress?" It was an odd experience when I came to Russia to fmd people saying here: "How slow tho' trench 'and English are in driving the Germans out of France and Belgium)!" No one can now chafe at the move'* ment of the campaign in Poland, in Eastern Prussia, and in Kalicia. The Russian Army has broken with: ita tna« ditien of taking a long time to get to' work. It has bcien handled with bril* liant skill in strategy. The plans of ita General Staff have been carried out fty, *ll ranks with magnificent vigour, ftfidj rtlf-sacrificc. Irresistible in' its sweep, it lias driven the Germans and tha' Aus'trians back across their frontiers broken and disheartened. It has gained! ftihe • first great victory) pf tlhe war. With all my heart I Jiope that by tha time this reaches England the Allies ott the Western Front will have beeiil equally successful. I know too well the nature- of their task, I am too 'grateful for the splendid pluck and persistence of 1 the troops engaged, British, French and; Belgian, to be impatient because their, struggle is s 0 ] o ng drawn out. But I have been asked to say Slow the cain« P<iign in the west strikes Russians, and! I can only answer: They think it is maJking very slew progress. Of course the mass of Russians liavo' formed no impression of it at all. Foil the very good reason that they do not* 'know how it is going on. Nor do the' 'mass of the better educated, the' mora' widely informed, follow tho campaign' cn the other side of Ivurope with much closer attention. The Russian newspapers are full of "our" war. Tha other campaign receives little notice Daily official reports are pr ! -'-vl. but 'they are so much alike day '' - day!". * One cannot be surprised at r whti know none of the places nair ■ them ipassing them over quickly .- ■aying', "Nothing ever seems to 'clis:\- •• 'over there." " I aim speaking of the mass of news* paper readers. Among those who travel, among diplomats and politicians, among staff officers, among the more l intelligent who fall into none of these categories, the fighting in Flanders, in Champagne, ' .along the Eastern French frontier, i.3 with attention And discussed yitli knowledge. Yet even among these I have detected a feeling of disawpomtmimt. 1 They cannot understand why the l 4 rench liave not put move men into tho field. "Where is the French army?" a • highly-placed official asked, ";We were 'told France could mobilise 4,000,000 men. We heard that she did actually assemble some 2% millions. So far as we can understand the position, she ha-i oiily. one million actually engaged. Where' are tho rest?"

I explained the French system of filling up gaps. I showed how a very large reserve was kept in the background, from which men were drafted continually to step into the places of those who had fallen He admitted the wisdom of this, lmt still he was not satisfied. "Even so," lie protested, "a million in tho fighting line is too few. The great blow should be struck now." The resources of Russia are so inexhaustible that she can afford to strike the great blow, and at the same time keep an immense reserve. Russians do not, perhaps, make enough allowance for a country with a population so much' smaller.

Nor do they profess to be able to understand the British method of raising an army by voluntary enlistnfent after war lias broken out. "You knew what your obligations were," tlicy say. "You knew that Germany was preparing to figlit you, always drinking to 'The Bay,' sending her busy spies among you, building ships and Zeppelins to take from you the mastery of the sea. How could you be content, with your little army?" "And how," several thoguhtful Russians have asked ine, "how was it yoft did not, immediately war was forced upon you, make military sen ice an obligation? Surely every Briton would have voted for that if it had been put before him! You do not love your country less than we or the French or the Germans, do you? You once had the reputation, you English and Scotch and Irish, of being braver than any nation in the world. Have you changed? How is it that after more than three months you have not got as many men as you need." Thirty-eight Englishmen dre going home from Petrograd to join the army. It is known here that an urgent suggestion came from the British Foreign Office to hold a meeting and appeal for recruits. 4 circular in very strong terms has been sent round the British eolony, pointing out the need for more volunteers. T/am sure no such measures as ,the meeting and the circular would have been required if the impression had not prevailed that the War Office did not want offers of service. "All who came out in August and September told us" (I quote one of the homeward-bound volunteers) "that men eager to go anywhere, and fight anybody, were running up and down the country at Home, being refused." There is very likely some simple explanation, such as the explanation that the Cabinet "Minister who said "Unmounted men preferred" for service in -South Africa did not know the nature of the country. But thoughtful Russians are pnzifled by-the meeting and the circular, while thoughtless ones make sarcastic remarks. Another thing which makes Russians ask questions is the assertion that much of our khaki is poor stuff, made, of rags, which will not keep our soldiers either warm or dry. The Russian soldier's coat is made of a material so solid and strong that people buy it and use it as a floorcovering, "because it never wears out." A general officer said to me: "I have otfen seen in your English newspapers scathing remarks about bribery and corruption in Russia. Who has been taking bribes in this ease? And will anyone bo punished?" I was not here when the campaign in defence of Belgium began so disastrously with the battle of Hons and the'retreat •which followed, bringing the "British force within danger of "annihilation," as General French said iri his report. I am told the feeling in Russia, especially among soldiers, was one of blank astonishment and alarm. How General Joffre came to miscalculate tlio strength of the Germans afc Mons may be explained some day, but it seemed, and still seems, an inexplicable error here. So profound fl doubt did it sow as to the conduct of the campaign that one of the most prominent newspaper writers in Petrograd asked ine as soon as he heard I came from the "French battlefields: "Is there •any fear of another Sedan?" I hope I reassured him. But the query showed how far inquietude affected even one who should be in a position to know.